NCEP's March 2013 Professor of the Month, Manitra Narisoa of Ecole Normale Supérieure

Professor Ramanitra Narisoa (known as Manitra) is a passionate ornithologist who loves his profession as both a teacher and as a researcher. He has two Masters degrees, one in the sciences and the other in science education, and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Environment from the University of Konstanz (Germany) and the University of Antananarivo (Madagascar). Since joining the École Normale Supérieure (or ENS, a Teacher’s College in Antananarivo) as a professor in 2007, he has taught courses in zoology, animal biology, and science education. Moreover, Manitra has been active in the world of Malagasy conservation for many years, having served as president of the Asity Association (focused on bird conservation) from 2003-2004, and having conducted biological inventories and environmental impact studies as a consultant throughout Madagascar. At the same time, throughout his career, Manitra has been interested in science education and has engaged with many partners to pursue education-related research projects.

Manitra is an active member of NCEP in Madagascar (known as Le Réseau des Educateurs et Professionnels de la Conservation, or REPC, in French). He was a member of REPC’s pilot academic group in 2007, participating in training on how to use NCEP modules and helping to provide information on ‘best practices’ for NCEP modules in the classroom. He has also been a module reviewer, on such topics as integrated management of coastal zones and land use patterns, and a REPC trainer for professionals in integrated coastal zone management and for professors in active teaching techniques. Currently, Manitra is our point person at ENS for Programme Sariho, REPC’s newly implemented training program in Active Teaching and Learning for Conservation Educators.

In his own classroom, Manitra continues to use NCEP modules to supplement his teaching – he believes that they are an important resource in a country where access to scientific publications is still limited. Manitra sees his country as a ‘living laboratory’ for research because of its unique biodiversity, but it is also a complex case for conservation programs. He believes that successful conservation in Madagascar requires sustained action in education, not only for students but also for the entire population and Malagasy leaders. Environmental education, at all levels, should lead to the empowerment of people facing biodiversity loss.

Thank you, Manitra – we are proud to call you March’s Professor of the Month!

Cordillera Azul National Park, Peru. Image Source: Flickr/Tadd and Debbie Ottman

This case study explores the process of building a participatory monitoring system, which unlike conventional monitoring involves the participation of local populations. Specifically, it presents the process of establishing participatory social and environmental monitoring by the native communities in the buffer zone of the Cordillera Azul National Park in Peru.

John participating in a collaborative research project with Hawkwatch International on prey availability in flammulated owl territories in the Wasatch Mountains of northern Utah

John is a Professor of Zoology at Weber State University, located in Ogden, Utah, where he teaches courses in Ecology, Animal Behavior, Principles of Zoology, and Animal Biology.

John’s involvement with NCEP began five years ago when he participated in an NCEP Faculty Focus Group workshop at Black Rock Forest, New York. Today, he is a faculty participant in our NSF-funded CCLI/TUES (Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science) research project, Developing and Assessing Process Skills in Conservation Biology and Other Integrative Fields. As part of the project’s Data Analysis working group, John is implementing two NCEP exercises this semester, Applied Demography: Parrots and Palms and the What is Biodiversity? comparison of spider diversity.

In addition to his involvement in our CCLI/TUES project, John utilizes a range of NCEP modules in his classroom. He has used The Importance of Invertebrate Biodiversity in his Principles of Zoology course, and is currently implementing the Applied Demography module in his Ecology course. This spring, John is planning to try out the Colorado River Interactive Simulation Exercise, where students experiment interactively with water allocation tradeoffs, economics of water use, and the impact of climate change on the Colorado River basin. Where possible, John adapts modules to the local context by adding examples from Utah ecosystems. For example, when using the Importance of Invertebrate Biodiversity module, John talks about the brine shrimp fishery in the Great Salt Lake, which is located less than 15 miles from Weber State University’s campus.

Since becoming involved in the CCLI/TUES project, John has worked to steadily increase the active learning components of his class and lab activities. In his Animal Behavior course, John requires students to complete semester-long group research projects that culminate in a presentation and a paper written in the format of a journal article. Students collaborate on study design, data collection/analysis, and the oral presentation, but are required to write their own paper on the research.

Outside the classroom, John is working on a paper on the pollination of the dwarf bear-poppy with a collaborator at the USDA Bee Lab in Logan, Utah. The dwarf bear-poppy is a federally endangered species limited to just 10 small populations in Washington County, Utah.

John with his WSU Entomology class at the Capitol Reef Field Station in Capitol Reef National Park

Thank you, John – we are proud to call you February’s Professor of the Month!

Dr. Ana Luz Porzecanski presenting initial project results. Photo credit: ColellaDigital.com

Ana and Kate presented a poster reporting the results to date of our TUES-funded project “Developing and Assessing Process Skills in Conservation Biology and Other Integrative Fields.” This NCEP led project convenes faculty participants from 17 academic institutions across the US, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Now entering its third year, the project creates, pilots, and evaluates exercises and assessment tools to promote the development of three key skills – critical thinking, data analysis, and oral communication – in students of biological sciences.

Our TUES project advances NCEP exercises associated with current modules including Applied Demography and What is Biodiversity (expanded for teaching data analysis), Amphibian Declines and Story of an Invasion (expanded for teaching critical thinking), and Why is Biodiversity Important? (expanded for teaching oral communication). With the development of student exercises and addition of student self-evaluation tools and instructor evaluation tools, these modules are now geared to teach and assess both content and key skills. As the TUES project progresses, these modules will continue to be revised and in the future will be made available to all NCEP educators via our website.

To date, our TUES project has piloted the developed exercises and assessment tools in 13 courses across 17 institutions, and we have analyzed data from 308 participating students. Our results indicate that students can gain in both content and skill within the course of a semester. As faculty participants prepare for a second semester of implementation, we will be analyzing how student gains in skill correlate with gains in content and student confidence, as well as comparing student gains between high- and low-intensity teaching intervention treatments.

The NCEP team and faculty participants will be presenting additional findings at the upcoming 26th International Congress on Conservation Biology in Baltimore, MD in July 2013 – stay tuned and fellow conference attendees, please join us! Follow the NCEP blog and Facebook page for updates and scheduling information.

Josh in the Cameroon Highlands during his annual study abroad trip

A primatologist by training, Josh is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at James Madison University (JMU), where he teaches courses on Primate Evolutionary Ecology, Primate Conservation Biology, Introduction to Biological Anthropology, and Biological and Human Dimensions of Wildlife Conservation in Cameroon. He earned his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and was a student of the New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology (NYCEP).

It was during his time as a graduate student in the NYCEP program that he first met Dr. Eleanor Sterling, Director of the American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. In 2011, Dr. Sterling invited Josh to be part of NCEP’s NSF-funded CCLI/TUES (Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science) research project, “Developing and Assessing Process Skills in Conservation Biology and Other Integrative Fields.” As a project participant, Josh uses materials developed by NCEP to improve and assess oral communication and process skills in his Primate Conservation Biology course. By improving his students’ ability to effectively communicate complex issues in conservation biology through oral communication, he aims to reinforce learning and retention of these issues.

Upon completion of the CCLI/TUES project, Josh plans to continue incorporating many of NCEP’s modules and exercises into his classroom, especially those related to threats to biodiversity, conservation planning, and sustainable development.

To engage his students, Josh incorporates active teaching techniques throughout the semester. His Primate Conservation Biology seminar centers on student discussion, debate, and utilizing peer-reviewed literature to critically evaluate issues. For example, Josh introduces his students to industrial oil palm development in the tropics by organizing a stakeholder debate. The class is divided into three groups – oil palm producers, environmental activists, and smallholder farmers – and each group is provided with a set of readings that will inform their opinions on industrial oil palm expansion. This exercises forces students to understand the issue from all perspectives and, ultimately, evaluate for themselves if industrial agriculture is or can be environmentally and socially responsible.

Josh’s research interests are in protected area management and the impact of bushmeat hunting on large-bodied mammal populations in the African tropical forest zone. Over the last 10 years, Josh has worked in Cameroon to help improve the protection of Korup National Park. Most recently, in collaboration with Cameroonian, American, and European organizations and scientists, he has been involved in a campaign to stop the clearing of over 70,000 hectares of tropical forest in Cameroon by an American agribusiness company, Herakles Farms, and its partner organization All for Africa, which intends to develop an industrial oil palm plantation in the middle of one of Africa’s most biodiverse regions. It is in this region that Josh leads an annual study abroad course on the biological, social, and cultural aspects of biodiversity conservation.

Josh with his students and Cameroonian colleagues in Korup National Park

Thank you, Josh – we are proud to call you January 2013’s Professor of the Month!

Below you’ll find a brief updates on some of NCEP’s activities: newly released and upcoming modules, an inaugural training program in Madagascar, and a new partnership in Ukraine!

In 2012, on-the-ground planning, training, and dissemination activities took place in Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Lao PDR, Madagascar, Peru, the Solomon Islands, and the United States.

Pacific Programs Manager Michael Esbach and local NCEP Coordinator Connie Hemmer with workshop participants in the Solomon Islands

Professors participating in an active teaching workshop at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Peru

New Modules

This year we published several new modules, case studies and exercises in English and Spanish, including:

English Language:

– Biological and Cultural Diversity: A Case Study of the Solomon Islands

– Payments for Ecosystem Services: an Introduction and Case Study on Lao PDR

Exercises:

– A Toolbox for Conservation Genetics

– Observed Impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity

– Systematics and Biodiversity Conservation

Spanish Language:

– A case study on La sobreexplotación de loros en el Neotrópico

– An updated version of Importancia de la Conservación Transfronteriza en la Zona de Tambopata – Madidi

– Spanish-language translations of eight modules, including Ecological Consequences of Extinctions, Amphibian Declines, and Agriculture and Biodiversity

Upcoming Modules:

Over the coming months, check back with us at ncep.amnh.org for new module releases on a range of topics:

– Sprawl and Biodiversity

– Human Wildlife Conflict

– Ecological Economics of Biodiversity

Madagascar

In June 2012, we launched a certificate-based training program in Active Teaching and Learning for Conservation Educators, also known as Programme Sariho. The program was named for the Malagasy expression “come with me!”, as it aims to enhance the teaching of conservation as a means to promote the engagement of new generations in biodiversity conservation science and action. Upon completion of this intensive training program, the inaugural class of 18 Malagasy professors from across the country will be certified as experts in Active Teaching.

NCEP Director Dr. Ana Luz Porzecanski with the inaugural class of Malagasy professors enrolled in Programme Sariho

Ukraine

We are excited to report that our Collaborators at the Ukrainian Environmental Club “Green Wave” and Ukrainian Environmental Education Center in Kiev, Ukraine, have been funded to translate 24 NCEP modules into Ukrainian and develop up to three new modules over the coming two years. The award includes support for multiple training workshops that will convene Ukrainian scientists and resource managers from the government, NGO, and academic sectors.

We are looking forward to another exciting year ahead, full of new opportunities and partnerships – and we hope to see you all at a workshop or other NCEP events!

- the NCEP Team

Mekong River (Flickr/Allie Caulfield)

This module serves as an introduction to the concept of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), illustrating the concepts in a case study on Lao PDR, a country highly dependent on ecosystem services, both for subsistence and for income. Detailed background information on the subject is complemented by a case study narrative of the relevance of PES to National Protected Areas (NPAs) in Lao PDR, which provides students with a real-world perspective on the applicability and opportunities that exist for PES. After working through this module, students should be able to:

●      Understand the importance of ecosystems and the services they provide

●      Analyze the benefits and challenges of creating and implementing a PES intervention

●      Illustrate how PES interventions have and can be incorporated into natural resource management in Lao PDR, specifically in protected areas